Ruth Bader Ginsburg promotes rights of minorities in South Korea

SEOUL, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg met with South Korea's Chief Justice Yang Seung-tae in Seoul to discuss human rights and the rights of sexual minorities.

The visit is the first of its kind since 1987, when Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor visited South Korea, Yonhap reported Tuesday.

Ginsburg is in South Korea for five days to meet with various officials in Seoul to discuss the status of legal exchanges and to promote the rights of sexual minorities.

Prior to meeting with Chief Justice Yang, Ginsburg met and dined with South Korean sexual minorities at Yongsan, the U.S. military base headquarters in Seoul. Among those in attendance were the South Korean filmmaker Kim Chokwangsu and his life partner, Kim Seung-hwan – the openly gay couple seeking to have their marriage legally recognized.

Ginsburg became the first associate justice to officiate a same-sex wedding in 2013.

South Korean outlet Newsis reported Ginsburg also met with Park Han-chul, president of South Korea's Constitutional Court, to discuss the possible establishment of an Asia human rights court and the role Seoul's court could play in its foundation.

Ginsburg is traveling with her daughter Jane Ginsburg, a professor at Columbia Law School.

The Supreme Court justice delivered a lecture on the human rights of minorities on Wednesday to South Korean lawyers-in-training.